Water cooled pipes are often used in metallurgical processing, such as in work support systems for furnaces where heavy metal bodies are heated to a hot working temperature, such as in pusher-type continuous slab reheating furnaces. In order to protect the pipes, an insulation, such as refractory tiles, is used to guard the water-cooled pipes from high temperature and oxidation and also to reduce heat loss from the furnace into the supporting structures.
In my earlier patent, U.S. Pat. No. 4,070,151, which issued Jan. 24, 1978, and the contents of which are incorporated by reference herein, a typical work support system for a continuous slab reheating furnace is described. In that patent, the insulation, in the form of refractory tiles, is tightly secured to water-cooled pipes by flanged hollow studs that are located radially with respect to the precast refractory tile sections, and the inner ends of the studs are electrically welded to the pipe surface. The precast refractory tile sections are of a length that renders them easily handled, with each section of a generally semicircular shape for application about the pipe.
In my earlier patent U.S. Pat. No. 4,330,266, which issued May 18, 1982, and the contents of which are incorporated by reference herein, an improvement over the tiles described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,070,151 is described, where two half-sections have interfitting parts which are interlocked and bolted about the pipe. In that patent, each of two sections of a tile has a metallic fastening device that is welded to the pipe and is embedded in the refractory, and when in place, such a system is fixed until the refractory tile body has disintegrated to a point where replacement is necessary.
In my earlier patent U.S. Pat. No. 4,424,027, which issued Jan. 3, 1984, and the contents of which are incorporated by reference herein, a further improvement in insulating tiles for water-cooled pipes is disclosed. In that patent, the insulating tile sections fit around the pipe, where the refractory tile bodies are formed about a metal channel section having a bottom, and spaced side walls with outwardly extending flanges along the top edge of the side walls. A radial hole is formed in the tile section concentric with an opening through the bottom of the metal channel, with the surface of the bottom of the channel adapted to contact the exterior of the metal pipe, such that a rivet-like weld may be used to fuse the pipe and metal channel section together and affix the refractory tile to the pipe.
While these earlier systems have been satisfactory and well accepted in the trade, they all contain metallic parts in the refractory insulation, which would best be eliminated due to the difference in the thermal expansion of the metal parts and the refractory material of the tile, and other factors.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a refractory tile section for encasement of a metal pipe that does not use any metal parts for securement of the refractory tile to the pipe.